Robinson, Joseph

From: An Island Refuge- Loyalists and Disbanded Troops on The Island of Saint John, The Abegweit Branch of UELAC, 1983

  • JOSEPH ROBINSON was one of seven sons born to William Robinson and his wife Ann Gold, in the small country village of West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England in the year 1748. Little is known of his youth but one would assume that he spent some time as a blacksmith’s apprentice, for at the age of twenty-two he joined the H.M.S. Arethusa, as Armourer, for a period of three years.
  • During his tour of duty on the H.M.S. Arethusa he visited the col- onies and in 1763 stayed in New York where he received his discharge in the fall of the same year. He worked there for twelve years before he married Mary Smith on March 15, 1774. Mary was the only daughter of Lawrence and Jane Ruger Smith of New York.
  • After their marriage Joseph and Mary lived for a few years in New Jersey, where two sons, Hercules and Thomas, were born. Later they mov- ed to Manhattan. In January, 1833, before a Select Committee on the Peti- tion of the American Loyalists he testified “I was a gunsmith in New York, and lost property of considerable value by adhering to the loyal cause at the revolution, where I acted as a Guide during a great part of the war”.
  • At the end of the War he and others who were loyal to the Crown, set sail aboard the H.M.S. Roebuck for Nova Scotia. Dissatisfied with condi- tions at their disposal they again set sail with twenty-five others from Shelburne for the Island of Saint John.
  • With Proclamations posted on the streets of Shelburne, offering lands to the Loyalists on the Island of Saint John, they probably felt dismayed and heavy-hearted upon disembarking in November to find Charlotte Town with four buildings, a few sheds and little food or shelter. The sloop Stag which brought them, offered to take them back. Why did they stay? Was it to save face from those they left behind at Shelburne, who were willing to wait a little more patiently to be looked after, or an iron will that if given a chance they would prove themselves, or was it perhaps a strong belief in their Maker that with His spiritual help they would endure? Whatever their reasoning they stayed but not without extreme suffering and privation.
  • Joseph Robinson’s house in Charlotte Town was situated at the north- western angle of Queen and Dorchester streets. Church services were held there. Joseph was a follower of John Wesley and helped found the Methodist Society, which boasted four principal members, Benjamin Chap- pell and spouse, Mrs. Smith and himself. When new trustees were ap- pointed on October 7, 1828 for the Wesleyan Chapel in Charlotte Town, Joseph Robinson was described as “Joseph Robinson the elder of Charlotte Town, in P.E.I. Gunsmith”. He followed his occupation of gunsmith and blacksmith and dealt in real estate.